Tarsi belonged to the honors program at Western, whose interdisciplinary focus she said prepared her for rigorous scholarship.

"We were exposed to different perspectives on issues. There was a high level of critical thinking and processing and competing viewpoints," said Tarsi, who traveled from UMass to meet with newly accepted honors-program students at Western. "They were training you not just to be accepting of research, but to be a producer of research, and that gets you ready for graduate school."

Small classes and close relationships with professors helped lead her forward, she said.

"The faculty know you well enough to see the potential that you don't see," Tarsi said. "They can see you in 10 years, seeing things that you aren't seeing in yourself."

Many universities have an honors program that allows the school to set up separate programs for their top students.

Western's program has grown in recent years in the number of students -- it will have about 265 students next academic year, from freshmen to seniors -- but also in quality, with high-performing students increasingly choosing the program over other schools.

Alexis Koukos, 19, graduated fourth in her class of more than 700 at Danbury High School in June, 2012, and had lots of options. But, she said, after meeting with professor Christopher Kukk, director of Western's honors program, she felt it was perfect fit for her.

"It's interdisciplinary, which was something I was looking for and the program would be a challenge for me,'' Koukos said. "I didn't just want a regular college program."

After one semester, she's not been disappointed. Both the level of classroom discussions with her peers in the program and seeing the opportunities, like one junior landing a summer internship at the Department of Justice, have impressed her.

"I'm just so happy I went to Western,'' she said.

Students in the honors program take one course a year in modes of inquiry along with their major requirements. The courses address four modes of inquiry -- which organize how scholars will approach and frame the ideas they need to understand.

In addition, students must take part in an honors activity, like volunteering, presenting at a conference, tutoring students or studying abroad.

In addition, they all must complete an honors capstone seminar as a senior.

"We treat our honors students after their second year like other schools treat their graduate students," Kukk said. "It's combining ideas and the real world. They are all fused together. That's how you make education concrete. You have to mix those things together."

The program was started in 1987, and Kukk is its third director.

He said he wants to draw to the school those high achievers who are generous with their talents, who he calls dolphins, rather than sharks.

"If you populate any program with those with a strong work ethic, intelligence, and compassion, that breeds an environment that attracts other like them," Kukk said.

The freshmen class, which has not been finalized, likely will have about 100 new students for a total of 256 honors program students in the 2013- 2014 school year.

In 2012, there were three high school valedictorians and a salutatorian, in the class.

James Schmotter, president of Western, said the expansion of the honors program "illustrates the growing awareness of Western's academic excellence among Connecticut's best high school seniors.

"The Honors Program is a great example of how students can connect with their university experience in a more intimate setting, working closely with faculty members," Schmotter said in an e-mail. "This also happens with athletic teams, debate, specialized clubs and even on-campus jobs, but the Honors Program is the quintessential example of such engagement -- and all research demonstrates that this is critical to having a successful collegiate experience."

Schmotter wrote that for many honors students, "new, unexpected dreams emerge, created by their work with dedicated professors and talented peers."

Students can be accepted into the honors program as freshmen or as juniors because, Kukk said, he doesn't want to leave out the late bloomers, the students who excel in college at a level they hadn't reached in high school.

"You have to want the intellectually rigorous work," Kukk said. "It's interdisciplinary in a way. You have to be up for the ride but it's a fun ride."